da realsbet： Hampshire were undermined by a spell of sustained hostility from Liam Plunkettafter Michael Carberry made a superb century in an opening stand of 183
21-Apr-2010
ScorecardMichael Carberry led Hampshire’s innings with a positive hundred•Getty Images
Hampshire were undermined by a spell of sustained hostility from Liam Plunkettafter Michael Carberry made a superb century in an opening stand of 183.As in Durham’s opening match against Essex, Plunkett began poorly but improvedin his third spell to take three of the wickets as the visitors subsided toclose the first day of the County Championship Division One match on 298 for 8.Plunkett did well to extract some life from another placid Riverside pitch, onwhich Carberry and fellow left-hander Jimmy Adams looked totally at ease afterNic Pothas chose to bat on a cold, bright day.With Steve Harmison and Graham Onions both still absent with back injuries, theDurham seamers struggled early on and left-arm spinner Ian Blackwell was on asearly as 22nd over. But Carberry swept him for four then advanced to driveanother glorious boundary through extra cover.Adams glanced and pulled Plunkett for two leg-side fours as his first five-overspell cost 29 runs and it needed a touch of beginner’s luck for Durham to makethe breakthrough.After remaining wicketless on his championship debut last week, England Under-19 all-rounder Ben Stokes struck with his first ball of the day.It was short and wide of off-stump, but Carberry cut it straight to backward point, where Plunkett held a sharp, low catch.It had all begun to look a little too easy for Carberry. After reaching 50 off87 balls, he needed only 53 more to complete his century with 15 fours and asix. But it was no surprise when he was out as he had begun to look a littlecarefree.Three overs later the more circumspect Adams shaped to drive Plunkett butseemed to check the stroke and got an inside edge to be well caught by PhilMustard for 68.South African Neil McKenzie looked totally at ease in reaching 30, but thenshaped to drive Blackwell and edged to slip. The left-arm spinner had a second wicket when Chris Benham aimed to turn him through midwicket and fell lbw, also for 30.In the final session Plunkett induced an inside edge into James Vince’sleg-stump and after dropping Sean Ervine at gully off Mitch Claydon he quicklymade amends by claiming the wicket himself.Ervine followed a ball leaving him on off-stump to be caught behind, and threewickets had gone down on 284 when Claydon had James Tomlinson lbw immediatelyafter Pothas suffered the same fate.